Friday, July 6, 2018

CJI is master of roster, says SC

The Supreme Court reiterated on 6th July, for the third time in eight months, that the Chief Justice of India is the master of the roster in allocating cases to different benches and his powers cannot be delegated to the collegium comprising the CJI and four seniormost judges.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan tuned down the plea of former law minister Shanti Bhushan for entrusting the task of allocation of cases to the collegium to stop arbitrariness in assigning of cases.

It said the previous judgments categorically held that the CJI, in his individual capacity, is the master of the roster and it is his prerogative to constitute the benches and allocate subjects which would be dealt with The SC held that the suggestion of delegating the task of allocation of cases to the collegium was not workable and would lead to many practical difficulties. “In case the expression ‘Chief Justice’ is to be interpreted as ‘collegium’, it would be difficult to have smooth day-to-day functioning of the SC, or for that matter the high courts,” the bench said.